Team building skills are critical for your effectiveness as a manager or entrepreneur. And even if you are not in a management or leadership role yet, better understanding of team work can make you a more effective employee and give you an extra edge in your corporate office.

 A team building success is when your team can accomplish something much bigger and work more effectively than a group of the same individuals working on their own. You have a strong synergy of individual contributions. But there are two critical factors in building a high performance team.

•  The first factor in team effectiveness is the diversity of skills and personalities. When people use their strengths in full, but can compensate for each other’s weaknesses. When different personality types balance and complement each other.
• The other critical element of team work success is that all the team efforts are directed towards the same clear goals, the team goals. This relies heavily on good communication in the team and the harmony in member relationships. 

In real life, team work success rarely happens by itself, without focused team building efforts and activities. There is simply too much space for problems. For example, different personalities, instead of complementing and balancing each other, may build up conflicts.

 Here are some additional team building ideas, techniques, and tips you can try when managing teams in your situation:

•Make sure that the team goals are totally clear and completely understood and accepted by each team member.

•Make sure there is complete clarity in who is responsible for what and avoid overlapping authority. For example, if there is a risk that two team members will be competing for control in certain area, try to divide that area into two distinct parts and give each more complete control in one of those parts, according to those individual’s strengths and personal inclinations.

•Build trust with your team members by spending one-on-one time in an atmosphere of honesty and openness. Be loyal to your employees, if you expect the same.

•Allow your office team members build trust and openness between each other in team building activities and events. Give them some opportunities of extra social time with each other in an atmosphere that encourages open communication.

•For issues that rely heavily on the team consensus and commitment, try to involve the whole team in the decision making process. What you want to achieve here is that each team member feels his or her ownership in the final decision, solution, or idea.

•When managing teams, make sure there are no blocked lines of communications and you and your people are kept fully informed. Even when your team is spread over different locations, you can still maintain effective team communication.

•Be careful with interpersonal issues. Recognize them early and deal with them in full.

 •Don’t miss opportunities to empower your employees. Say thank you or show appreciation of an individual team player’s work.

•Don’t limit yourself to negative feedback. Be fare. Whenever there is an opportunity, give positive feedback as well.

Build a team is a hard job, so don´t try to put all the tips in practice at the same time. Maybe you can start with two or three, when you feel ready, you can add two more. Your effort to build a high performance team is well worth it.

New Year, time to think, time to check out if  our goals were accomplished. But it is important, be prepared for the new year… So, I would like to share some ideas to be ready.

1. Set smaller goals with smaller steps

Gradual small steps motivate people toward larger change.

If you want to lose weight, for example, change small aspects of your eating pattern. Resolve to have a salad tomorrow for lunch, and then do that for a week.

Write down the steps you want to take in a datebook to make it concrete, and reward yourself for making the individual changes, she said.

Let’s say you want to work on being more optimistic this year. Nolen-Hoeksema recommends imagining what you would be like if you were optimistic. Imagine yourself going through a day at work if you were optimistic and confident, then write that down in great detail.

Now, you have specific aspects of that ideal of optimism to work toward. Pick one thing that the optimistic you is doing that you’re not, and start working in that direction, she said.

2. Frame your goals positively

Despite the proven health risks of certain habits, such as smoking, thinking about a habit in the negative will not help you nix it. Studies have shown that it’s hard to get motivated about avoiding cancer, but easier to think about smelling better and saving money as reasons to quit smoking.

So, if you want to quit doing something, think about the positive aspects of not doing it. And make sure you reward yourself for sticking to the plan along the way.

3. Look at the pros and cons

If you’re on the fence about whether you should make a change this year, make a list of the benefits and costs.

Pay attention to what’s driving you, she said. Sometimes it’s pain that motivates people to change, or a new phase of life, or new information, or a possible promotion.

4. Get a resolutions buddy

Knowing that someone else is working toward similar goals, or is supporting you in your endeavors, helps to keep motivation up. Having a new year’s resolution buddy who’s keeping track of your progress helps keep you accountable for what you’ve done.

At the end of every year, Kaslow and her friend review all of their goals from the prior year, examining what the obstacles were to change and then developing new goals for the next year.

Planning for goals with someone can guide you in the path towards change, even if you don’t don’t accomplish everything in a single year.

5. Be specific

It’s easy to get discouraged by a broad goal like “I’m going to improve my marriage,”. Figure out exactly what it is that’s not working for you, and then formulate a strategy for solving individual problems.

In the marriage example, it’s important to get realistic about what it is about your marriage that needs improvement. Then, spend some time keeping a diary and tracking what’s going right and what’s not, and come up with one thing you can do per week that would help the situation.

The process of assessing the small actions you can take in the immediate future, and savoring the positive effects, can take a lot of pressure off and help you achieve larger goals, she said.

6. Know thyself

The start of the year is as good a time as any to take inventory of yourself. What are your passions? What do you want to be doing better? Take the time think about who you are and how you want life to be.

Real change happens because you yourself want it, not because others want it for you, experts say.

7. Examine deeper issues

Sometimes there are problems that need to be addressed before people can move forward with the change they want.

In some cases there are psychological impediments to making changes. For example, some people fear failure so much that they unknowingly sabotage themselves. Self-esteem may also play a role — some people don’t feel they’re worthy of being taken care of, he said.

If you think that there are deeper issues preventing you from moving forward in your life in some way, consult a mental health professional.

8. Don’t be overanxious

Having a long list of lofty resolutions can create anxiety, so Nolen-Hoeksema recommends choosing anywhere between three and five overarching things to change.

Writing down your goals and how you plan to achieve them is a good way to beat anxiety.

9. Be flexible

Although you should be specific about what you want to do, sometimes it helps to broaden your vision of what you’re trying to accomplish. For instance, if you’ve been laid off from your job in the financial sector, it may not be immediately possible to find a similar position.

But if you are on the job market, the broader goal might be to support yourself or your family. Having a wider vision of what constitutes success can free you up to explore other options that do help with the central purpose.

10. Keep your eye on the ball

Changing behaviors is especially difficult when other people around you encourage habits you’re trying to kick, or if you are under stress. For instance, if you’re a recovering alcoholic and having a bad day, it might be hard to resist if someone says.

Kind Regards.
Alberto

Instead, think of how much time you spend commuting or driving. When you are driving, do you listen to music or the radio? Do you have an ipod you could use during your commute?

If you manage to listen to anything, you could as well, and as easily, listen to personal growth audiobooks, including time management lessons or other inspiring self improvement tapes or CDs. Just keep them on. Not only will you learn, but you will also feel energized after being in a company of those inspiring speakers.

For instance time management advice is not to difficult to comprehend. It typically does not require intense thinking or research to understand. What is much more important is how much those time management principles and techniques become a part of you, how deeply they penetrate into your mind. This is why learning in small bits over an extended period of time, with each of those bits repeated a few times, will beat the effect of any intense time management seminar.

Listening to educational audiobooks in your car seems to be a small change in your habits. Yet, those ten minute pieces will add up fast. Over a few months you will have a dozen of books deeply imprinted in your mind. The words of wisdom from the time management speaker will become a part of your inner voice. If you keep doing this over those months, even without any books or time management seminars, you will be much more ahead in your time management than 90 to 95 percent of people around you.

For optimal learning, it is generally recommended, and my personal experience support that, that you come back to the same audiobook for at least 5 times.

Also in the companies the emotions are contagious

Since the persuasion combines the suggestion with the rational demonstration it is possible to understand it like a rationalized affective reaction, when we manage in the world of the company and want to persuade in some action course, it is indispensable to identify the affective common elements of the groups, since these elements act like beliefs, expression of will or design of action.

In other words, the persuasion goes to the affections and handling emotions which is subordinated to an essential skill in the today management: the emotional intelligence. Today, the most advanced investigations of the modern cognitive psychology, they confirm the hypothesis of which the emotions are priority in the processes of development and human change.

The communication barriers are done of good intentions

A common error is to want to persuade individual and separately to the members of a group that has already developed intense forms of solidarity. These tactics are sometimes lived like attempts of destroying or of dissolving the group and therefore the hostility increases.

A common mistake is use fear, anxiety, punishment or isolation to persuade other. It is known that the persuasion needs calmness, since to induce to new thoughts, to new answers, there is necessary the cerebral harmony that the focalización and the attention facilitates.

The persuasive communication can be learned

Firstly it is necessary to begin for meeting us in what it is named our social communication style, which gather together in four big categories: promoter, control, analytical or facilitating. We come to this knowledge for the perception of the others, they asking a small group to answer to a questionnaire on us, with the guarantees of the anonymity, this way to meet ourselves as they are perceived by the others.

Secondly we must learn to meet other, on the one hand identifying his social style and for other listening to it and observing it. It will allow us to go on to a crucial stage: the creation of a climate of confidence, to create a propitious ambience to the persuasion, projecting reliability, opening, acceptance of other and authenticity. For it we must discover which our strong points are in the skills to create confidence.

Also it is possible to learn other skills, such like handling the well-known resistances that the persons raise in a persuasion relation, knowing how to relieve them and to solve them, to apply the necessary interpersonal flexibility to act of a form adapted to the speaker and to the situation, to learn the stages of the process of persuasion, to know and to put into practice concrete action plans with definite persons.

Of the book “Getting Past No” of William Ury, which I have read in these days, I saw this concept that seemed important to me for a negotiation.

It is necessary to listen actively. For example, answer to the opponent “I believe that you said it in quite soft terms”

So that he different is sure that he understood him, it is necessary to paraphrase what was heard.

To recognize the point of view of the opponent, which does not mean to agree with him. The recognition communicates with phrases like: “In that it is right”, “I know exactly to what it refers”, “I understand what you say”, “if I was in his situation, it would see the things like that”.

Present an excuse, say “may I ask “: What can we do to compensate it?”

Project safety

To gain access without doing authorizations. Look for the way of accumulating síes. A form is to paraphrase and in the end to ask: Is this what you mean?

To put itself in the keynote, I See perfectly his point or I can form an image of what you say.

Give to the person recognition.

Recognize the authority and the suitability of his opponent: “You are the chief” or “I respect his authority” or “they have said to Me that you are the person who knows more this politics submerged”

Establish a work relation. If there exists the possibility that you have a conflict with another person in the work, begin to cultivate the relations with this person as soon as possible.

Express his opinion without making haste. “I understand why he thinks that way. It is most logical thing, considering the experience that it has had; but my experience has been different”.

Do not say “but”, say “yes… and”. “The price is very high” Normally are answered by us “But the quality of this unbeatable productoes”. It is necessary to answer “Yes, it is absolutely true that our highest price. And what you obtain for this price is major it is a higher quality, more reliability and better service”.

Do affirmations with “me”, not with “you”. “I feel that…”, “I disturb Myself when…”, “I uncalm down with…” and “I consider that that…”.

Defend his position. It is necessary to recognize the points of view of other and simultaneously to defend the proper ones.

Recognize the differences with optimism.

Coaching is the term used to describe the process of helping a person to improve his performance.

 The coaching needs time and it is a permanent process. An interpersonal challenge always exists in the aspect of correcting performance shortcomings. Many interpersonal skills are needed in a coach to be successful.

 A good coach must:

1. -Observe the behavior in the work and describe the situations in which not wished behavior takes place.

2.-Be capable of giving feedback to the employee in such a way that it is clearly understood and recognized.

3. – Rise questions to obtain all the excellent facts about the problem of performance of the person.

4. – Listen and understand the side of the history that the employee is presenting to him.

Correcting performance shortcomings is a skill that it improves with the experience. The commitment with the development of the employee is a pre requisite…

 Vacations are a good time to take rest and recover energy, but When this moment arrives, some managers don´t take the time or go out for a few days “stick” with the notebooks and blackberries…

The vacation time it is very important for a Manager, nevertheless be in the office allows him to resolve any issue inmediatly, this happen more often when the manager don´t know how to delegate. A Manager knows that it is impossible to do everything by himself, but sometimes them avoid to delegate tasks. There are four causes because manager don´t delegate:

- “I can´t delegate, because I need to control it everything”

 This atitud show a lack of confidence to his employees, to resolve this, remember that confidence can be built based on:
 - Comunication: as a manager you need to talk and listen to the members of your team
- Compromise: your co-workers must be align with the enterprise goals.
- Competence: you must be surrounded for the best people you can

- “I have no time to teach the task, so I do it by myself”

The reality is the opposite. A Manager must have a time to teach to his employees. Each task that no teach avoid our growth capability in the enterprise, instead of think that teach a task is a waste of time, you must think in this as an investment.

- “I do the job better than nobody”

If you think in this way, maybe you are not a good leader.Great leader surround with people better than himself, so they can complement their own capabilities.

- “The task it is so important to be delegated”

As a primary responsibility a Manager must define the strategy. The execution of this strategy and all the tasks involved, must be in charge of his team. If we do operational tasks, who is think?!

Please, If you want to take vacations and have a balanced style of life, keep this concepts in mind.

Idea 2. Achieve that another person says “Yes, yes”, immediately. When you speak with anybody, does not start by discussing the things in which there is difference between each other. Start by emphasizing – and you should keep on standing out – the things in which both agree. Keep on accentuating – if it is possible – that both have the same intentions and the only difference is of method and not of intention. When a person has said NO, the whole pride that exists in his personality is required to be consistent with it.
The skillful orator obtains from the beginning a series of YES, like answer. To discuss does not give benefits, it is a much more profitable and interesting glance the things from the point of view of the speaker and to make him say “yes, yes” from a beginning. Socratic Method: to obtain an answer of “yes, yes”. It was raising questions with which his speaker had to be convenient. It kept on gaining an affirmation after other one, until it had a quantity of “YES“ in your favor.
He kept on asking, until finally, almost without realizing, his adversary was meeting coming to a conclusion that a few minutes earlier it would have pushed back energetically. The one who treads with gentleness goes far.

Idea 3. Try to see honorably the things from the point of view of another person. Remember that another person can be mistaken completely. But they doesn´t know it. Do not censure it? What would he think, how would I react if I was in his place?
To be success dealing with the others depends on how you receive with friendliness the point of view of another person. In the conversation when shows that we considers the ideas and feelings of another person as important as the proper ones.
The way of encouraging the speaker to have the mind opened for our thoughts, is to initiate the conversation giving him clear indications on our intentions, and always accepting his points of view.

We spend a lot of time helping leaders learn what to do, we don´t spend enough time helping leaders learn what to stop…

Interesting, isn´t it?